`Secret` Billions For Pentagon Are Reported

May 20, 1985|By Charles Mohr, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Because the Reagan administration overestimated inflation, Congress appropriated $18 billion to $50 billion more than needed for Defense Department programs in the last four years, according to Les Aspin, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

In a speech prepared for delivery on the House floor today and made public Sunday, Aspin described the funds as an ``unplanned`` and ``secret`` dividend for the Pentagon.

The Wisconsin Democrat said he did not suggest any wrongdoing on the part of the Defense Department. In a letter, Aspin did ask Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger to cooperate in seeking ``a more rational and fair system`` to deal with the situation.

William H. Taft 4th, the deputy secretary of defense, said in a written statement Sunday that Aspin was correct in saying billions of dollars were involved. But in it he said the Pentagon had made a ``remarkable achievement`` in spending less money than expected, which he attributed to better management and to administration success in controlling inflation.

Aspin said Congress did not have enough information to calculate precisely the extra money the Pentagon had received because of faulty inflation predictions. However, he used Pentagon statistics to argue that for the portion of annual military budgets devoted to such items as operations, maintenance and military construction, $18.2 billion had been appropriated to meet inflation levels that did not materialize.

He took this figure as his minimum estimate. Saying inflation had also been overestimated for such functions as buying weapons and paying for fuel, he said the total surplus might be $50 billion.

The largely unnoticed inflation cushion will probably be an issue when the full House debates its budget resolution. The House Budget Committee voted last week to hold the military budget for the fiscal year 1986 to the same level as this year, with no allowance for inflation. Administration officials asserted this was irresponsible and damaging to national security. The Senate`s budget resolution permits military spending to rise by the administration`s estimate of inflation.

Taft`s statement said, ``We have already returned to the taxpayer billions of dollars we have not spent.``

Weinberger used somewhat different phrasing in an appearance on the NBC News program Meet the Press when asked about the issue of such surplus funds. ``We give it back and ask that it be applied to next year,`` he said.

A staff member from the House Armed Services Committee, who spoke on condition he not be identified, said that, in fact, very little unspent money is returned to the Treasury, but in some cases Congress is made aware of some of the inflation overestimates and is then able to reduce future military appropriations accordingly.